Breathe in for Luck
by carpemermaid
Summary: "I bet I shot out more sentries than you took down while we were on that chase before you shoved me in this tiny closet." Keith's head shot up and after a beat he raised an eyebrow at him. "Really, Lance?" "Yup," Lance answered, popping the 'p' quietly. He puffed his chest out confidently and ignored the way it made their armor brush together.


_Notes:_ For a tumblr prompt game: _things you said with no space between us._

Back at it again with the forced proximity Klance. *finger guns* Keith + Lance are 18/19.

* * *

Keith pushed Lance, making him stumble back in the minimal space between them. He immediately followed, crowding Lance's personal space.

" _You_ got us into this mess!" Keith accused, his finger pointing aggressively in Lance's face.

They were trapped in tight quarters in the middle of a Galra base, practically standing on top of each other. They'd been sent in on a reconnaissance mission, but just as they were about to locate the room Pidge had loaded into their maps they had taken a wrong turn and ran into a patrol unit. Keith had acted before Lance could do anything, and had grabbed his wrist and dragged him on a wild chase with him occasionally getting a shot off over his shoulder to cover them.

There was barely even enough room for them both to stand up straight in the tiny, dimly lit compartment. If Lance took a deep breath, the chest plate of his Paladin armor brushed against Keith's. He had to stand with his back propped against the wall and his legs spread slightly so Keith could stand between them—there wasn't enough room for both of them to stand normally if they wanted to fit inside the room. Any move they made, even the tiniest one, was easily noticeable. Lance might die before they made it out.

"No, that would actually be you. _I'm_ the one that snuck us into the base. You're the one that pulled us into this compartment," Lance corrected irritably, batting his hand away. He wasn't in the mood to have this conversation with Keith. He kept getting distracted by what little distance there was between their bodies. He blamed everything on the rising heat in the room. "If you hadn't just dove into the action, they wouldn't have even noticed us here. I had a perfect plan, man, what gives?"

They both paused their bickering to listen as a patrol sentry marched by their hiding place. When he thought it sounded like the sentry was gone, Lance opened his mouth to make another point in his favor, but Keith's hand shot up to cover his mouth. Lance inhaled sharply, and Keith shuffled closer to whisper to him.

"Shh. They might circle back," Keith said in a quiet murmur. He tilted his head, listening intently. He was so close that Lance could practically count his eyelashes.

Lance felt his face heating up with Keith's warm palm pressed against his lips. His entire body felt like it was attuned to Keith's every move in that moment, like he was a sunflower and Keith was the sun he was seeking.

An immature part of him wanted to dart his tongue out and lick his hand, just to get a rise out of him, but he reeled the urge back in and focused on the situation they were stuck in so he could figure out how to get them out of it.

Lance fought the urge to fidget. And the urge to hold Keith's hand harder over his mouth, among other things. _Not now, inappropriate thoughts_ , Lance reasoned in his head desperately. It didn't help that Keith was unknowingly ticking at least three of his top fantasies at the moment. He could feel keen interest stirring in his groin. He suppressed a shiver and turned his attention to listening for the Galra guard with Keith.

When the coast seemed clear, Keith nodded and pulled his hand back from Lance's mouth. Lance ignored the slight niggle of disappointment at the loss.

"We have to get out of here," Keith said in a urgent undertone. In the dim lighting, Lance could just make out the way Keith's eyes were darting all over the small room, presumably looking for a way to escape.

"No, wait, I think if we just wait this out the others will come to extract us," Lance reasoned. "Pidge knew the timeline we were supposed to be on, and that we should've been out by now. She'll take our not sticking to the plan as a distress signal and figure something out."

"So—what, you just want to wait here in this little room?" Keith clarified, sounding slightly incredulous.

"Uh, yeah? Do you have a better idea?" Lance asked. "Oh wait, let me guess. Bust our way out with force and eject ourselves into open space and hope the homing beacon Red has on your ass kicks in so she can save us?"

"I…" Keith trailed off, narrowing his eyes and jutting his chin out stubbornly. Lance hated that he found it kind of an attractive look on Keith.

Lance rolled his eyes. "Thought so. How about this: what would Shiro do in this situation?"

"Oh," Keith breathed, sounding a bit like Lance had punched him. He frowned sympathetically; they didn't bring Shiro up often outside of the team's direct search efforts.

"Sorry," he added as an afterthought, patting Keith's shoulder. "I didn't mean it that way, buddy. But he would be able to figure this out, since he's spent so much time in Galra territory, you know?"

"Right," Keith said tightly, his hands flexing into fists at his sides.

Lance had to distract him from himself somehow. He wracked his brain for something and blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"I bet I shot out more sentries than you took down while we were on that chase before you shoved me in this tiny closet."

Keith's head shot up and after a beat he raised an eyebrow at him. " _Really_ , Lance?"

"Yup," Lance answered, popping the 'p' quietly. He puffed his chest out confidently and ignored the way it made their armor brush together.

Keith stared at him in silence, his lips pursed tightly. Keith was either going to lose it and blow their cover in the compartment, or he was going to just stab him. Lance wasn't sure if he was ready for either of those things to happen. Not with the way every minute shift Keith made unconsciously, the snug lycra under suit of his armor felt tighter in the groin thanks to the proximity and teasing friction. He wanted to drop his head back against the wall and let out a satisfyingly loud groan, wanted to pull Keith against him completely so that he could feel every inch of him.

Keith was studying him with an inscrutable expression that made Lance want to squirm. "What?"

"I never noticed," he said, sounding intrigued and surprised.

"Never noticed what?" Lance asked.

"A lot, apparently," Keith said, as if that explained everything.

Before Lance knew what was happening, Keith darted forward and pressed their lips together. Lance jumped, but managed to keep his shocked squawk from giving away their position. Keith was kissing him a little too roughly—Lance wondered who he'd been kissing like that, or if he had ever even kissed anyone at all—and pressed him against the wall. After a minute, Lance gripped Keith's shoulders and gently, but firmly, pushed Keith off of him.

" _What are you doing_?" Lance hissed.

Keith blinked and hesitated. He looked vulnerable for the span of a heartbeat before his expression hardened again. "Well, if we're going to follow your plan and wait out the rest of the team, then I guess I was killing time. It was better than listening to you—plus, you have a pretty obvious boner, so I thought you might be into it."

"You—you— _wha_ —" Lance sputtered, making sure to keep his disbelieving voice hushed. He glanced down at his traitorous dick and then back at Keith. "Fine. _Fine_. But if we're going to just sit here and kiss, we're going to do it right. Where the fuck did you learn to kiss?"

Keith looked sheepish and embarrassed for a minute, his cheeks flushing in the minuscule light.

"I didn't," he admitted.

Lance pulled up short. "You've never kissed anyone before?"

Keith shook his head, trying to cross his arms across his chest to close himself off, but failing with the restrictive confines of the room. He ended up jabbing Lance in the stomach with his elbow.

" _Oof_ ," Lance coughed. "Watch it. Okay, then that was really weird of you to kiss me just because my dick is hard, dude. Jesus, it's just the friction…you keep moving around when you don't realize and you're rubbing up on me. Proximity boner, you know?"

Keith looked mortified now and Lance's heart lurched. Fuck, now he wanted to hug the surly idiot and run his fingers through his long hair. Why was this his life? Why did he have to be crushing on his teammate? Lance grumbled under his breath and put a tentative hand on Keith's shoulder.

"I didn't mean—It's not like you're unattractive, I just—oh my god," Lance sighed, breaking off of his fumbling explanation. He rubbed his free hand over his face. "I like you," he mumbled through his splayed fingers.

"You do?" Keith asked.

Lance nodded. "Why did you kiss me?"

"I like you, too," Keith said easily.

Lance whipped his hand away from his face and gaped at Keith. "What the fuck?"

"What's wrong? You like me, I like you…can we kiss now?" Keith was blinking at him.

Lance struggled to find words. He finally settled on the only thing he could think of. "Keith. You sweet summer child. This is a fucking ridiculous plan."

Lance cupped Keith's face with both of his hands and leaned in to kiss him, softer and slower this time. Keith made a faint sound in the back of his throat and pressed his whole body against Lance's so they were completely connected. Keith was a quick learner, it seemed. He was already sliding their lips together, sucking on Lance's bottom lip and grazing his teeth over it in the exact way that made Lance's knees go a little weak. He leaned back against the wall for support and drew Keith closer between the bracket of his legs, biting back a satisfied moan when Keith brushed their groins together.

Keith broke their kiss for a moment, glancing down and watching while he ground his hips into Lance's instinctually. Fuck, that was hot, Lance decided. His dick gave a throb in agreement as he rocked back against Keith's growing erection.

"Shit," Lance muttered under his breath.

He tucked his fingers under Keith's chin and pulled him into another kiss, licking into his mouth. His breath hitched at the first touch of Keith's tongue against his own. He guided Keith into tilting his head for a better angle and kissed him deeper, their tongues sliding together slickly. Keith's hands started to roam, exploring Lance's waist and squeezing his hips to tug their bodies impossibly close together. Lance made another strangled sound and Keith hushed him.

The hard ridge of Keith's cock tenting the skin-tight material of the under suit was possibly the hottest, most erotic thing Lance had ever felt. God, feeling Keith rut against him eagerly made him want to tear off their armor and suck his dick right here in this tiny ass closet, surrounded by their enemies.

Keith's hands were gripping Lance's shoulders, his grip flexing with each roll of his hips as he ground their cocks together. Lance was mouthing down the side of his neck, nipping at the underside of his jaw. He was actually getting close; the combination of arousal and the high stakes of their predicament had Lance teetering on the edge of coming.

They were making out again, kissing as if their lives depended on it, when their comms crackled to life in unison. They leapt apart, both of them smacking into opposite walls with a muted _thunk_ as Pidge's voice filled the small compartment.

"Guys? Guys! Come in! Keith? Lance?"

Lance covered his face with both of his hands for a minute, trying to re-route some of the blood that had rushed southward to go back to his brain so he could answer.

"Yes, Pidge, we're here," Keith said, only sounding slightly breathless.

Lance looked at him in surprise, raising an eyebrow. Keith shrugged, his eyes darting to stare at Lance's mouth for a second before Pidge was interrupting them again. "You didn't check in at the rendezvous point."

"Yeah, we got into a sticky situation," Lance explained, biting back the hysterical laughter that threatened to bubble out of him at his phrasing. "We're hiding out in some kind of crawl space or something in the middle of the base."

"Okay, hold on, I'm pulling up the base's coordinates so I can lock onto the signal and hack into the live feed of the schematics," Pidge said. "We'll come extract you, but you might need to cause a diversion so they don't pick us up on their scanners."

Both of their gazes met and Lance knew immediately that they were thinking the same thing. The corner of his mouth quirked up in amusement. They did make a good team, after all. Keith reached out and hooked his pinkie finger around Lance's, shooting him a shy smile that made Lance's stomach do acrobatics.

"Okay, I'm in," Pidge said. "The best access point is going to be the north bay at the cave entrance. Get to that point and Allura, Hunk, and I will be able to get you out."

Keith and Lance looked at each other once, calling up their bayards.

"Ready?" Keith asked with a smirk. Lance grinned back at him and nodded.

"Oh yeah, partner. Let's get 'em."


End file.
